RB hit back at McLaren’s Zak Brown after Red Bull collaboration complaints

Visa Cash App RB CEO Peter Bayer has downplayed concerns that his team’s close relationship with Red Bull will give them an unfair competitive advantage in 2024.

RB launched their 2024 F1 challenger last weekend, showing clear similarities to the dominant Red Bull RB19 from 2023.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been vocal in RB’s close alliance with Red Bull, calling for significant regulation changes to stop there being a “conflict of interest”.

He said: "I think the A-B team is a real problem moving forward. I think co-ownership, you don't really have that in any other sport, and I think that provides a lot of conflict of interest.

“So now that we have a budget cap we need to be really a sport of total fairness and I think any time you have an entity that owns two teams, or an A and B relationship, I think it really starts to compromise the integrity of sporting fairness.

“That's something that really needs to be tackled.”

Bayer has hit back at Brown, and any other critics.

“One of the first things you learn in Formula 1 is that the easiest way to become unpopular is to be successful,” he told RacingNews365.

“As long as you’re last, people will not even realise you're there. As soon as you start knocking on the door, they will throw everything at you that they can.

“I’m coming from the FIA and I know how much scrutiny there is on all of the teams.

“Certainly, there is even more scrutiny when it comes to the teams working closer together. The rules are very clear.

“You might have seen the statement of the FIA, when they looked at our car, [they said] ‘this is a different concept’. There is nothing that concerns us.”